Ohio high court orders Brunner to make D-Day decision on Husted by next Monday

  Ohio State Senator Jon Husted, a Republican from Kettering, near Dayton

Columbus, Ohio: State Senator Jon Husted (R-Kettering), the Republican Party's endorsed candidate to run for the office of Secretary of State next year, now knows his decision D-Day, that will, for purposes of voting only, decide where his residency resides.

Courtesy of the ruling Monday by the all-Republican Supreme Court, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a democrat, must either rule on Husted's residency case no later than seven days hence or dismiss it.

As candidates ready themselves for the grueling political battles that await them in next year's elections, Brunner's decision likely will factor into the tussle over whether Ohio will continue its Democratic ways or return to the party that ran it in full for most of the past two decades.

Brunner, in a prepared media release, said she will do so.  "I will proceed expeditiously to issue a fair decision that can best follow and harmonize the various laws that affect his right to vote under his residency situation."

Although her statement was short, it was not hard to interpret parts of her statement as taking a swipe at Husted and the court. In its written ruling, The Ohio supremes commented on her handling of the case, saying she had not "acted with the requisite diligence" she should have. The issue started nearly a year ago.  

After months of wrangling on this issue, drawn out by gridlocked voting at the BOE that twice sent the matter to Brunner to break the tie, the court said the clock had run out, and that it was time for Brunner to serve up her decision on Husted.

On Husted jumping the gun, Brunner said, "At a point in time when I was very near to issuing a decision in the tie vote matter, state Sen. Jon Husted decided to file suit in the Supreme Court of Ohio to affect its outcome."

Husted, a member of the Ohio House for eight years who became Speaker of the Ohio before Democrats won it back last year and who then ran and won a seat in the Ohio Senate when he became term-limited in the House, won the endorsement of his party to run for the office Brunner now holds.

His voting residency was challenged in the fall of 2008 by a union-supported, progressive group that argued that home records, like water bills, would prove his residency for purposes of voting only to be in a first-ring suburb of Columbus, where his wife and children live.

Husted says he resides in Kettering but because of his duties in Columbus, the state capital, he lives with his wife and children in Arlington, northwest of Columbus. According to state law, voters and legislators must live where they are registered.

Brunner's decision could affect the political dynamics in Ohio in 2010, when federal mid-term elections take place and Democrats, who now hold the office of governor and three other statewide offices, seek to secure re-election to them amid a gloomy economy that will worsen before it recovers. The first woman SOS will need to beat fellow party member Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher in the Democratic primary coming in nine months, if she hopes to topple Rob Portman, the candidate Republicans think can retain the seat of George W. Voinovich, Ohio's retiring senior senator.

In her short statement, Brunner did not glamor the court any by saying she would have "been pleased to have the high court's guidance on how best to apply the three residence law provisions in his particular situation." But promising fealty to her office, she said she will "abide by the court's decision as I have said all along I would and issue my decision on the board of elections' tie vote within the seven-day time frame."

Ohio has 88 county boards of election (BOE) are each run by a bi-partisan board of Republicans and Democrats. BOEs deadlock often, especially when issues arise that are tinged by partisan politics, as demonstrated by the Husted v Brunner case. In it Husted claims, that for purposes of voting only, he resides in Kettering, an affluent suburb of Dayton. The state authority to break BOE ties rests with the Office of Ohio Secretary of State.

Husted v Brunner: Political chess

The chess move to force either the dismissal of the case or a decision will only make life more interesting for Mr. Speaker and Madame Secretary.

If the wisdom of Brunner's decision keeps his residence in tact, she may have given Republicans control to draw state legislative districts for the next ten years, a situation they've held for over two decades. Husted has a big and growing campaign war chest that can parlay to his favor the political winds that seem to be shifting from officials like Gov. Ted Strickland and President Barack Obama, whose popularity ratings are being battered from all sides.

The two Democratic candidates for secretary of state, both women, one a county commissioner and one a state representative, so far do not have the firepower Husted brings with him to this race.   

If the wisdom of Brunner's decision says his residence in outside Columbus, she will be tagged again for being a too partisan secretary of state. Furthermore, her decision will only spawn more litigation, as the real authority over whether Husted is a senator or not rests with the Ohio Senate, where Republicans have ruled with nearly total power for over two decades.

Strickland's three years in office has been lackluster to some. Obama, who won Ohio last year, is engaged in a partisan prairie war over deficit spending on health care, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and global climate change, among other major issue.

For more info:

http://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/PressReleases/2009/2009-09-14.aspx

http://www.sconet.state.oh.us/ROD/docs/